MUSCAT — Oman’s banking sector is moving from digital adoption to an “intelligence-first” phase, where artificial intelligence, open banking and cybersecurity will define the next stage of financial services, the Chairman of the Central Bank of Oman said.
Speaking at the New Age Banking Summit Oman, he said digital transactions accounted for about 89 per cent of total transaction volumes in the Sultanate by the end of 2025, while instant payment systems process around 1.1 million transactions daily. “These are not just operational achievements,” he said.
“They are signals that trust has been earned, that the foundations are resilient, and that the infrastructure we have built is capable of supporting the ambitions of the next economic era."
The chairman said Oman was no longer merely pursuing digital-first banking, after years of digitising payments, onboarding and customer services.
“We are entering the era of intelligence-first banking,” he said, adding that artificial intelligence is being embedded into payments, supervision, compliance, risk management and financial decision-making. He said the shift raises a central question for regulators and financial institutions: how to ensure trust, ethics and human judgment remain at the core of transformation as algorithms increasingly shape economic behaviour and access to opportunity.“Intelligence without wisdom is not progress. It is risk wearing the mask of innovation,” he said.
The chairman framed open banking as a strategic and institutional shift, not just a technology upgrade. For decades, he said, institutions controlled access to financial data and services.
Today, customers increasingly expect ownership, portability, transparency and freedom over their financial lives.He said the institutions that will lead the next era of finance will be those that reinvent themselves before disruption forces them to do so. The CBO chairman also warned that innovation must be anchored in governance.“Innovation without governance creates fragility, but innovation anchored in trust creates something far more valuable — sustainable transformation,” he said.
He added that the history of financial crises showed the danger of innovation moving faster than the wisdom required to govern it. Cybersecurity, he said, has become a core part of financial and national resilience as banking systems become more intelligent and interconnected.“Cybersecurity is no longer a technical function. It is financial security.
It is economic security. And in an era of geopolitical volatility, it is national security,” he said.
He linked the banking sector’s transformation to Oman’s 11th Five-Year Development Plan, describing it as more than an economic roadmap and as a statement of strategic ambition in a rapidly changing world. The chairman said Oman was building a financial ecosystem that is digitally advanced, globally connected, innovation-driven and nationally sovereign.“The future of banking will not be determined by technology. Technology is just the instrument,” he said. “The future of banking will be determined by leadership, strategic foresight and our collective willingness to shape innovation in a manner that advances prosperity while never sacrificing trust.”Under the leadership of His Majesty Sultan Haitham bin Tarik, he said, Oman is moving towards that future with purpose and confidence.“We are not here just to observe the new age of banking. We are here to shape it,” he said.
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